


Two Lovers

by PrydonianAlchemist



Series: Of The Safe, Cold Comfort [3]
Category: Doctor Who, The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Also this was meant for the other day but I got sidetracked, And yes i wanted Nastya to be happy after chapter 8s hell and here we are, F/F, Mentions of Death, Summary credit to Astronomy Films because that summary of the event was awesom, and i needed to do something about it, and im like hell yeah date night, and plus theres a double meaning to the title so see if yall can spot it, inspired off a conversation with a friend, its just a passing mention but i tagged it just in case, plus cc needed some soft after chapter 8 hell, so i guess happy Yule and happy holidays if you celebrate, we were like hey what if that conjunction was like two lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28278819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrydonianAlchemist/pseuds/PrydonianAlchemist
Summary: 'On the near horizon, a rare celestial occurrence approaches: On December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn will come together in a “great conjunction” — the closest they've appeared together in nearly 800 years. ... Jupiter and Saturn meet every 20 years or so, but rarely do they get so intimate.'~~cw/tw: passing mention of death
Series: Of The Safe, Cold Comfort [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2014492
Kudos: 7





	Two Lovers

_It was just a brief moment._  
_They'd come so close then._  
_Two lovers, once separated, together again at last. They'd meet for just a moment, just a brief, minute moment, and then they'd be gone again, separated by time and by space, longing to be together again._

* * *

Listless, Nastya hung back over the controls. She couldn't stand one more minute just hovering in space.

Especially in a small control room with the only exits being the hall — which the Doctor had locked under " _reasons_ " — and the exit — which, obviously, led to space and the last place Nastya wanted to be right now.

 _You and me both..._ The ship muttered when Nastya had slumped below the controls and stared off toward the scanner. _Library again. Don't understand why that warrants a locked door._

“Some things about him I'll never understand.”

_I've been traveling with him for much longer and yet there are still new things I learn about him. As far as I know and can surmise, he's locked the door because he doesn't want to be bothered... but he's kinda asleep, so that should be a given. Not going to disturb him._

“Suppose that means we're stuck here.”

_Not necessarily. Well if you mean, the control room, then yes, we're stuck. And yeah that's boring but I think we're in this spot for a reason._

“If it's a reason for the Doctor, I don't endorse him sleeping in the —”

_It wasn't the Doctor. He thought he knew where was going, but, you know that I'm stubborn and took us somewhere completely different than where he intended, because why not? I can have a little fun every once in a while._

Nastya laughed after a brief, awkward silence. “Fair enough.”

_Plus, something's going on tonight... that I thought you'd like to see._

Nastya stood suddenly, nearly knocking the top of her head on the console but wincing anyway. Her head was buzzing with excitement. Curious. She was curious.

Every listless thought was gone and she wanted to know.

She quickly dashes the excitement off by brushing her hands on her coat, though there's still some happiness remaining in a thin and barely hidden smile.

“Right. Right, tell me. I'm listening.”

_So I found this one thing while in the library and I thought ‘hell, this seems like fun’ and I decided to take my chance and lo and behold, the Doctor decides to make the wise decision to take us somewhere and then escape into the library and pass out on a pile of books as he usually does, y'know. Long story short, he doesn't know we're a hundred thousand kilometers above Earth orbit. Winter solstice, 2020. The shortest day of the year but also a time known as a “great conjunction”, where —_

“It's where two objects in the night sky appear to align and overtake each other. If you draw a straight line between the two, they'll connect. Most notably is between Jupiter and Saturn, which happens...” Nastya leaned over the controls. “About every twenty years or so, but this is the closest they'll have been since... March 4th, 1226.”

_Did this happen back on Cyberia?_

“Occasionally. I never saw it because I was always stuck inside and the most I had was some virtual reality... But,” She stood and twirled on her heel. “Nothing beats the real thing.”

 _Well_ , the ship laughed — the control room lights flickered slightly in amusement. _If nothing beats the real thing, then you should look outside before you miss it._

 _Outside. It's happening outside._ Nastya almost bounced on her feet as she walked toward the exit door but restrained herself as she knew she'd fly outside should she open the doors too quickly.

 _Space_. She was greeted by space as she opened the doors, and she knew her eyes lit up when she saw it. Stars, planets, just space for millions of miles. It made her so giddy and so excited that she could no longer stand and had to lean against the doorway to support herself.

_Are you... are you alright?_

Nastya caught the humor laced with the concern in the ship's question and very nearly laughed herself. “Yeah...” she said, steadying herself on the threshold between the control room and space. “Yeah, I'll be fine.”

 _Alright_... The humor grew in the ship's voice until it abruptly faded. _So, we're in Earth's Solar System, High Earth Orbit — we're about half of the distance to the moon, facing away from the sun. If you look directly ahead you should see Jupiter and Saturn should be really close by._

Nastya held out her hand into space — the cold atmosphere, or rather lack of atmosphere, danced upon her fingers. How familiar that cold was, how comforting it seemed to be, how repelling it seemed to be. For her, it was so hard to believe how long — and yet how short — of a time it had been since her departure from the Aurora.

Nearly five years already. Five years, and she'd seen more of the universe than she would have ever known. Five years, and she'd explored planets, and found more happiness than she thought she would ever have — falling in love all over again could be added to that latter aspect, though she knew that was a rocky road there, perhaps it could even be laughed at as well.

 _Maybe_.

Nastya lowers her hand and then watches as her breath frosts. It shouldn't be possible, but she knew that there was an air shell protecting her here. The air shell didn't help much with temperature, but it eased her worries a bit — plus, it was a bit fun to watch her breath fog where it was nearly impossible otherwise.

Eventually, though, that becomes an afterthought, as she stares out into the distance, spotting the two planets nearly straight ahead of her. They were so close, almost embracing each other from her perspective though she knew that millions of kilometers separated the two. Close, but not too close.

Nastya thought, if she looked quite carefully, she could quite nearly see Saturn's rings and the eternal storm upon Jupiter. They were so different yet so similar. So close that she could almost reach out and touch it but they were so far away from her but so close to each other. She was tempted to go back into space and join the two lovers and linger there for the rest of eternity.

But she restrains herself, and instead sits there for just a while, watching from her fair distance as the two seemed to converge, but only just for one moment. Then, after an eternity but maybe a mere moment, the planets slowly and reluctantly drifted away. It started as just merely an inch in Nastya's view — not much to notice with the naked eye — but as the minutes — or perhaps hours — passed, the distance between Jupiter and Saturn grew, not noticeably, but steadily, lovers finally deciding to part ways and think no more of each other until their chance to meet returned once again.

Nastya herself sighed after a brief moment of stolen breath; she leaned against the doorway. A smile flashed across her face before a thought dashed it away.

_Two lovers... Waiting to meet again. Agonizing over when they'd see each other once more. Nastya could nearly laugh. Guess we aren't much different, are we?_

She closed her eyes for just a moment and allowed herself to smile again.

Peaceful. That's what she felt now. Peaceful. Happy. She liked this feeling — she liked being happy.

“And now, to another 800 years. Well... twenty if we're lucky.” She laughed quietly. “The planets but two lovers meeting for but a moment until the end of time.”

She sat up from the doorway and leaned out just slightly. Her eyes focused still on the growing distance between the planets. Not even a sound disturbed the air until the gentle voice of the ship broke it.

_I thought you'd like to see it... Especially after what happened a while back..._

“Yeah...” Nastya leaned back and nodded solemnly. “It's... really beautiful. Just have to... strip it down to the bare essentials and... appreciate it."

She drew out a sigh and the air frosted in the thin air shell. "I don't want to think much of what happened anymore. Death happens. Universes, planets, stars, people — they all die in the end.”

Though the ship did not reply, a steady, solemn hum seemed to answer Nastya's statement.

The smile that had been previously stolen now returned to her face. Again, she sighed. “Thank you, love.”

_I knew you would like it. Just... wanted to... perhaps see you happy again._

“Well, you did some good there.” She chuckled back.

When the ship grew quiet again, Nastya leaned her head against the door once more — the smile did not fade but instead grew wider. She lingered there in the doorway for a long while before she was unconsciously called back inside by a distant but familiar voice.


End file.
